UK - Man (Daniel Martin) admits killing sex offender by setting fire to his home

Original Article

And yet another example of why the sex offender lists should be taken offline and used by police only. How many people are going to be murdered before this is done?

05/24/2013

By Matt Lloyd

A man has admitted killing a Midland sex offender after starting a blaze at his home.

Daniel Martin, 24, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of [name withheld] when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

[name withheld] died at his flat in Chedworth Close, Warndon, Worcester, in December 2011 after Martin set fire to wheelie bins placed by the front door.

The blaze quickly gutted the property, killing the 52-year-old who had convictions for indecent assault and gross indecency dating from the 1980s and 90s.

The killer, previously of Canterbury Road, Ronkswood, will be sentenced on July 26.

Yesterday Detective Chief Inspector Paul Williamson said: “This will save [name withheld]'s family the rigours of a trial and they also welcome Martin’s guilty plea.”

“This landmark in the case means we are nearing the end of what has been a long and complex investigation.”

“It is now more than 18 months since the fire occurred at Andrew’s flat and Martin has finally admitted his is responsible for his death.”

“When he was killed, his family asked the police and the public to help them find some answers; I hope this conviction has gone some way to do that.”

“I would like to thank all those members of the public who offered statements and came forward as witnesses; their efforts have led directly to today’s conviction.”

Three other people have been charged with perverting the curse of justice in relation to the case and are due to stand trial.

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UK - Dad falsely accused of being paedophile on Facebook found hanged

Original Article

This is what happens when you have self proclaimed "saviors of children" who harass many people claiming they are "pedophiles" but who are not. Innocent people lose their lives. There are many groups online who claim to "out" pedophiles, but they do nothing except break the law, harass people, and make libelous claims.  The person or persons responsible should be sent to prison for murder.

05/24/2013

By Steve White

A dad found hanged in a cemetery was driven to suicide after he was falsely accused on Facebook of being a paedophile, his family claim.

Steven Rudderham, 48, was traumatised when his name, address and photograph were published online, with a message calling him a “dirty perv”.

Within 15 minutes, the message had been shared hundreds of times and he received death threats via the social network.

An inquest heard he was found hanged in the graveyard three days later.

His daughter Bethany Beaumont told the hearing: “They’ve destroyed an innocent life for no reason. It was disgusting.”

His mother Carol Matthews said: “I want to know why someone did something like that. I hope they rot in hell. It took a person’s life. We will never get over it.”

Mr Rudderham was a bricklayer and was working towards examinations as a building site manager before the internet accusations, an inquest in Hull heard.

The family explained that Steven spotted a 14-year-old girl giving out contact details to a 60-year-old man on Facebook and added a comment warning her not to give out her details to people she didn’t know.

Steven’s father, David Matthews, 66, said that another user then made a copy of his son’s profile picture and posted it with a banner labelling him a paedophile.

David, who lives with his wife Carol, 69, in Hull, said: “Within 15 minutes over 100 people had shared the picture of my son and it went viral.”

"Steven was getting death threats and threats that if he was spotted on the streets that he’d be castrated or hung.”

"He hated paedophiles so to be called one himself was devastating to him.”

Bethany, 19, told the inquest: “There were people who had known him for years commenting on it, he was so upset.”

"He stayed at my house that night because of what the comments were saying, about people coming to his house and smashing it up.”

The darts fan, who proudly posed with top pro Phil “the Power” Taylor, saw Bethany every day and she realised the profound effect the accusations were having on him.

She said: “He couldn’t believe it. He just looked at the wall and wouldn’t eat. It was like someone had ripped his life apart.”

Mr Rudderham discussed giving police a memory stick with evidence but it was recovered from Mr Rudderham's body. Police have also seized a computer hard drive.

Mr Rudderham's family say he served time in prison in 2010 for fighting but had no convictions for sex offences.

The inquest heard there had been no evidence of medical depression in the months before his death. No drugs and no significant amounts of alcohol were found.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Coroner Paul Marks said: “The medical cause of death was hanging.”

"He was actively pursuing a qualification to improve his status and job prospects. In the last few days of his life, he received a pejorative message on a social networking site which greatly troubled him.”

Police confirmed they are considering an investigation into the Facebook posts.

Mr Rudderham is said to have reported comments to Facebook who removed them.

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VA - Teens, technology, law: when sexting is not pornography

Original Article

05/22/2013

By Justin Jouvenal

When three US high school students from Virginia made mobile phone videos of drunken sex acts with fellow teens and shared them among themselves, they ended up in court last week facing charges usually reserved for adult predators: child pornography.

The case is one of a number where teens caught "sexting" have been charged with a crime that can carry a sentence of 20 years and could require registry as a sex offender.

In many other US states, the law has not caught up with the combustible mix of teens, technology and sex that has made sexting an issue. Prosecutors must rely on a patchwork of laws created before the rise of smartphones to handle such cases.

Some parents and rights groups are calling for a new law that would distinguish sexting from child pornography, create lesser punishments and focus on educating teenagers, not punishing them. But they also acknowledge that young victims can be devastated when embarrassing photos or videos are spread to their peers.

A mother whose 15-year-old son was charged with 12 counts of child pornography for sexting called the experience a nightmare. She said the teen, who has Asperger's syndrome, was naive when he sent out a topless photo of a classmate. ''He is thinking his life was at an end. He could be labelled as a sex offender,'' she said.

Parents of two teens in Ohio and Florida say their daughters committed suicide when they were ridiculed after sexually explicit images of them were forwarded to others. And sexted images and videos can be found by child pornographers, who trade them on the internet.

The three students on trial were charged in January with possession and distribution of child pornography after they filmed themselves engaging in sex acts with at least six teenage girls. All the sex acts were consensual and the 10 videos were filmed at parties at the teenagers' homes, beginning in December 2011. Legislators say they worry a law to make sexting a misdemeanour could unintentionally open a loophole that might be exploited by pedophiles.

In addition, the circumstances of such cases vary widely. They range from a girl willingly texting a racy photo of herself to a boyfriend who does not share it to teens secretly recording sex acts and maliciously spreading the videos.

In the US, at least 20 states have passed legislation on sexting since 2009, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. States have generally moved to create more lenient punishments for sexting teens and to shield them from having to register as sex offenders. A University of New Hampshire survey found 7 per cent of young people had received a nude or nearly nude image, while 1 per cent said they had created sexually explicit images of themselves.

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CA - Rapist and former police detective (Anthony Orban) may be sentenced - even though he's dead?

Anthony Orban

Original Article

05/21/2013

By Matt Cantor

(NEWSER) - A former police detective was convicted of kidnapping and rape last year—but before he could be sentenced, he committed suicide. But he's not off the hook: A California judge could still sentence Anthony Orban despite his death. "The only reason he is not here is because he volunteered to take his own life," said Judge Shahla Shabet, per the San Jose Mercury News. "The court does have jurisdiction to complete the sentencing."

Orban's lawyer disagrees. "I can't comprehend how you can go ahead and sentence someone who is dead," James Blatt told Shabet. "This is not in the best interest of the dignity of the court system." He says the conviction should hold but the case should be removed from the calendar; Shabet argues that either a formal dismissal or sentencing is required, and Blatt says he won't seek a dismissal. Now, the sentencing hearing has been postponed to the summer so Blatt can research his position. Says the victim: "I really just want it to be over." (This isn't the first twist in Orban's case; click to read about his unusual defense strategy.)

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CO - Fixes to contentious Colorado sex offender treatment system pushed out

Original Article

05/12/2013

By Ryan Handy and Megan Schrader

Eleven days before he was shot to death, Colorado Department of Corrections Director Tom Clements wrote a letter to the state Senate, pledging to transform the prison's highly contentious sex offender treatment program after an independent report declared it to be poorly run.

But after Clements died March 19, his plans to change the Sex Offender Treatment and Management Program were set aside, and further attempts to address issues with the program were stymied by a packed legislative agenda that put guns, civil unions, and marijuana at the forefront.

Since Clements' death, the department has not yet unveiled plans to address issues highlighted in the report. In the meantime, the legislature and the governor ordered two more evaluations of the treatment program, due to be completed next year.

Gov. John Hickenlooper asked the Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) to create a sex offender task force to spend the next few months looking at the act and its requirements for sex offenders.

The Legislature's joint budget committee set aside $100,000 for a study of the Sex Offender Management Board, which oversees treatment programs throughout the state, due to be completed next year, according to budget documents. It is the second study of sex offender treatment ordered by lawmakers in the past year.

Now that the 2013 General Assembly has ended, the sex offender task force will look at how treatment can be improved. The move was inspired by a Republican push to transform Colorado's sex offender laws, and model them after the Florida system, known as Jessica's Law. The task force will examine how to restructure Colorado's sex offender sentencing and treatment system, and will weigh suggestions against the provisions of Jessica's law.

Nevertheless, sex offender sentencing and treatment remains a hot-button issue that many legislators are reluctant to touch. Finding a champion for legislation to improve sex offender treatment is difficult even when the Legislature is not busy, said Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs.

'One of the things that is always difficult to deal with in these circumstances is nobody wants to appear that they are being soft on crime in anyway, ' Waller said Thursday. 'And it's unfortunate. '

Laurie Rose Kepros, director of sexual litigation at the Office of the Public Defender, hopes that the task force will relieve the political stalemate that has plagued sex offender issues.

'I think that's consistent with the function of CCJJ, and what everybody's been hoping they would tackle, ' she said.

The sex offender treatment program was created in 1998 as part of the Lifetime Supervision Act, a sentencing scheme for sex offenders engineered to treat them in prison or on probation, and release them into the community.

The aim of the act was to put sex offenders into therapy, and prevent them from reoffending once they got out of prison or off parole. But since then, a lack of funds and poor management of the program has ruined any chance the program had of working, experts say.

Experts quoted in a Gazette report in April suggested that the act was misconceived from the outset, with some lawmakers and lawyers fearing that the treatment guidelines were too broad and too expensive to be sustained.

The system, instead of treating and releasing offenders, has trapped many in prison long after they were due for release. Of nearly 2,000 sex offenders sentenced to prison under the act since 1998, only 168 have been paroled. Every year, sex offender treatment demands more money - last year the corrections department spent about $2.8 million on treatment. Correction officials say they don't have the money they need to run the program.

For sex offenders, their advocates and lawyers, this legislative session was expected to offer some relief. The much-anticipated independent report, ordered by the Senate's Joint Budget Committee in 2012 to examine the treatment program, was completed this February. It criticized the program's large treatment groups, which bunch offenders of varying crimes together, and the poorly trained therapists who run them. Fixing the program would require new staff as well as legislative changes to treatment protocol, according to the report.

Read the rest of the article

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IN - Pence signs into law changes to sex offender registry

Original Article

05/10/2013

Changes are coming to Indiana’s sex offender registry, thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Mike Pence Thursday.

HEA 1053 (PDF) requires the Indiana Department of Correction to remove information from the online public portal of the sex offender registry relating to a sex or violent offender who no longer is required to register or is deceased. The new law also adds the vehicle identification number of the vehicle owned or regularly operated by the offender to the information he or she is required to provide for sex offender registration. Driver’s licenses or ID cards must contain the offender’s current address and physical description.

Among other things, the law also merges the offense of criminal deviate conduct into the crime of rape and repeals the criminal deviate conduct statute, effective July 1, 2014.

The introduced version of the bill was prepared by the Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee.

Pence also signed HEA 1159 (PDF), which limits the liability of a public school or an accredited nonpublic school that provides community-use physical fitness activities to the general public.

The governor still has dozens of enrolled acts before him with a signing or veto deadline of Saturday, including HEA 1393 (PDF) on judicial technology and automation and HEA 1320 on workers’ compensation.

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OH - 3 (Ryan Cozart, Ariel Smith & Sara Craig) arrested in murder of sex offender in Meigs County

Ryan Cozart, Ariel Smith & Sara Craig

Original Article

05/09/2013

By Lisa Robbins & Courtney Khondabi

UPDATE:
Law enforcement officials identified the victim as 57-year-old [name withheld] of Pomeroy, Ohio. It appears he was stabbed and assaulted, however the exact cause of death has not been released.

Three are charged in connection with [name withheld]'s murder: Ryan Cozart of Racine, Ohio who is charged with the murder; Ariel Smith of Portland, Ohio and Sara Craig also of Portland, Ohio are both charged with complicity to commit murder.

Detectives report [name withheld] knew the trio but it is not clear what sort of relationship they had. Police believe the trio went to [name withheld]'s room, stabbed and assaulted him and then stole his car. Deputies arrived on scene after midnight.

About 1:50 a.m. Cozart and Craig returned to the hotel in the victim's car and were arrested. Investigators later picked up Smith at a house in Portland.

The scene was described as gruesome and bloody. It took detectives hours to check several locations including Meigs Motel room 22. A motive has not been determined.

Wallace is listed as a sex offender in Ohio. Investigators have not said whether or not his criminal past had anything to do with his murder.

Read the rest of the article

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CA - Supremacist (Charles Francis Gaskins) jailed for killing sex offender

Charles Gaskins & Sandra Sheaves

Original Article

This is exactly why the sex offender registry needs to be taken offline and used by police only!

05/03/2013

A Northern California white supremacist convicted of killing a child molester has been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison, while his wife - convicted of being an accessory - will be released from jail in about two months, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

Charles Francis Gaskins, 48, was sentenced Friday after pleading no contest in March for the killing of [name withheld] in 2009. A probation report said Gaskins was a member of a supremacist group that required its members to attack anyone with a history of child molestation.

Gaskins and his wife - Sandra Sheaves - was living in a home she owned in Carmichael, a community outside of Sacramento, when they allowed the 66-year-old [name withheld] to move in. Gaskins had met [name withheld] while they were both serving time in prison, The Bee said.

When Sheaves discovered on the Megan's Law website that [name withheld] was a registered sex offender, she told Gaskins.

Gaskins and Sheaves confronted [name withheld] in the garage of the home, with Gaskins killing him by repeatedly hitting him in the head with a large rock, prosecutors said.

[name withheld]' body was later found dumped along the side of a rural road about 35 miles away in Placerville.

As part of his no-contest plea, Gaskins insisted authorities go easy on Sheaves, who also was charged with [name withheld]' murder.

Prosecutors agreed, allowing her to plead no contest to accessory to murder. Sheaves, 43, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

"In a way, you almost instigated this, by showing the information from Megan's Law to Mr. Gaskins," Sacramento Superior Court Judge Sharon Lueras said in sentencing Sheaves.

With time served and other factors, Sheaves is expected to be released in 66 days, according to her attorney, James Warden.

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FL - Brittany's Law targeting sex offenders heads to Florida governor for OK

Original Article

05/02/2013

By Jonathan Mattise

TALLAHASSEE - It took three years, but Rep. Gayle Harrell is finally poised to change state law in honor of a slain Port St. Lucie teen.

The Stuart Republican’s proposed Brittany’s Law, named after 17-year-old Brittany Carleo, has cleared the House and Senate and is headed to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature into law. Carleo was murdered in 2006 by a 42-year-old sex offender who bonded out after arrest.

A Harrell proposal on sex offenses, which first contained Brittany’s Law, had stalled in the Senate. So Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park, offered to tuck the provision into HB 7035 (PDF), a pretrial detention bill. The House agreed to the final version of HB 7035 with Brittany’s Law in a 119-0 vote Thursday.
- Yep, this is how these sneaky people work.  If you cannot pass it one way, sneak it into another bill with a different title.

In the proposal, if registered sexual predators and offenders are arrested again on unrelated charges, they would be kept in jail until a judge can determine whether they’re too dangerous to release. Individuals with those records would be held up to 24 hours before potentially being released, as long as the crime is more severe than a traffic misdemeanor.

Continue reading here

See Also:

• 'Brittany's Law' fails in state Senate; inspires new strategy for woman behind it

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VA - Murdered man Hopewell’s first homicide of the year

Original Article

04/26/2013

By Greg McQuade

HOPEWELL (WTVR) - Hopewell Police are investigating the first homicide of 2013 inside a home on Buren Street.

A man confronted an intruder and shots are fired, but police don’t think this is a random crime.

Buren Street in Hopewell. A place with tidy homes flying American flags and where neighbors watch out for each other.

But the quiet calm was shattered early Friday morning. An armed intruder breaks into 915 Buren just before 6 in the morning.

[name withheld], who lives in the home, confronts the person. Moments later gunshots ring out. The 41-year-old dies inside with his mother just feet away.

Neighbor Justin Parke says he heard gunfire just a few houses away.

“When I heard it I was right there in my living room watching television. It was like boom…boom…boom,” says Parke.

“There is a probability here that the victim was not the intended target,” says Hopewell Police Chief, John Keohane. “Right now for the residents it does not appear to be a random act of violence in their neighborhood.”

One neighbor who didn’t want to be identified says she is leaving when her lease is up in June.

“It’s too close for comfort. It’s scary. Really scary. My heart goes out to the parents or whoever has been suffering but it is heartbreaking.”

Long time neighbors like Isabel Vartanian are worried about a killer on the loose.

“We need Hopewell to be like when I was growing up. Scares me to death. Definitely,” says Vartanian . “It breaks my heart to see that somebody was murdered right here.”

[name withheld] was a registered sex offender with the Virginia State Police since 1995, but Hopewell’s police chief emphasizes the shooting was not related.
- And how does he know that when the case is not over yet?

“At this point there is nothing to believe that him being on a sex offender registry has anything to do with this homicide,” says Chief Keohane.

For Vartanian, she just wants the person who pulled the trigger caught soon so she can rest easier.

“We never had any crime growing up. We were safe and did not have hate.”

Late Friday afternoon Hopewell police were still processing the crime scene and investigators were interviewing persons of interest.

The Chief of Police says detectives are following strong leads in the case. If you know anything about [name withheld]'s death you’re asked to call Hopewell Police at 804-541-2222.

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UK - Baby-faced woman (Emma Hall), 21, faces life in jail after leading vigilante gang who murdered teenager falsely accused of rape

Emma Hall

Original Article

04/17/2013

By SAM WEBB

A woman is facing a life sentence for leading a vigilante gang who tortured and brutally killed a teenager wrongly accused of rape.

Emma Hall, 21, of Romford, showed no emotion as she was found guilty of murdering [name withheld], 18, at the Old Bailey.

Her friends James Danby, 27, and Tony O’Toole, 30, were also convicted of murder.

Mr [name withheld] was savagely beaten to death in May last year after an 18-year-old girl pointed him out to Hall during a chance meeting and claimed she had been raped by him two years before.

She had made a complaint to police but the matter was dropped when she withdrew the allegation.

Police found no evidence that a rape had taken place.

The teenager and Hall were visiting friends at a house in Romford, Essex, where Mr [name withheld] was also staying.

He was beaten up in a room and dumped on wasteland in Woodford Green, east London.

Simon Denison QC, prosecuting, said: 'She told the others that he was the person she had told Hall about at the time who had raped her.'

'The men, over a prolonged period of time, severely beat him up by punching and kicking him to the head, so he was bleeding heavily from his injuries and his face was terribly swollen.'

Hall then drove Danby and O’Toole and Mr [name withheld] to a lane where he was taken to the bank of a stream and 'finished off'.

Mr Denison said: 'They killed him by punching and kicking him and stamping on his head many, many times.'

'The bones in his face were crushed.'

The killers then bought petrol and set fire to their bloody clothing, before cleaning up bloodstains at the house.

The following evening, Hall drove them and another man to the spot where the body had been covered with a mattress and other rubbish.

Mr Denison said: 'They had with them knives and a pair of bolt cutters that they were intending to use to mutilate his body to make it more difficult for him to be identified by cutting off his fingers and removing his teeth.'

But Hall had secretly tipped off police to divert guilt from herself, and officers were waiting for them when they arrived.

Mr Denison told the jury: 'His murder was quite extraordinarily callous, violent and brutal.'

Billy Duggan

Two years earlier, the teenage girl had claimed she was raped 'but when what she was saying was examined more closely by police, it was clear that she was not in fact saying that he had raped her', added Mr Denison.

Hall and Danby were also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting justice.

O’Toole was also found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice along with Danby.

Billy Duggan, 21, was found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice.

The defendants, who were all from Romford, were remanded in custody to be sentenced next week.

Jovan Roberts, 28, was cleared of murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and Khalid Hassan, 20, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert justice. They were discharged.

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MD - Kirk Bloodsworth - Wrongly convicted of murder / sexual assault of a child

Video Link

Video Description:
Kirk Bloodsworth was the first person to be exonerated and released from death row by DNA evidence. In this film, Kirk describes his experience of being convicted for a crime he did not commit, being on death row and how the discovery of DNA testing led to his release. He also describes the limitations and roadblocks involved in using DNA to exonerate people on death row.

See Also:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Website
• YouTube

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I killed my BFF - Cabin Fever

Description:
Can we ever escape our past? An organic farmer (Patrick Drum) meets a lumber mill worker (Gary Blanton) in Washington's Olympic Peninsula. They become close friends, and when Gary has to move out of his house, Patrick invites him to share his cabin in the woods. But one of them is hiding a dark secret. And when the other finds out, it begins a spiral of anger and vengeance... leading to a killing spree and an intensive manhunt. With two bodies already found, police race to find the suspect before he kills again.

Read First:

• Two sex offenders shot dead in Clallam County by Patrick Drum

Click the image to view the video

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UK - Three guilty of murder after body was buried in suitcase (Stuart Wareham, Lee Wareham & Benjamin Walter)

Original Article

And yet more proof that the online sex offender hit-list needs to be taken offline and used by police in the UK and elsewhere, and the article above has video that captured most of their crimes via CCTV.

04/03/2013

Three men who killed a Boscombe man and then buried him in a shallow grave in woodland have been convicted of murder at Winchester Crown Court today.

Stuart Raymond Wareham of Bournemouth, aged 26, his half-brother Lee Raymond Wareham, 33, and 22-year-old Benjamin Henry Walter, both of no fixed abode, killed [name withheld] in his flat in Cecil Road, Boscombe, on Thursday June 7 2012.

On Sunday June 10 2012 Dorset Police received a report that [name withheld] was missing from his flat. The circumstances were suspicious and it was believed, but not confirmed, that he may have been killed.

On Wednesday June 13 2012 Mr [name withheld]'s body was excavated from a shallow grave in woods. He had been buried in a large suitcase and had suffered horrendous injuries.

An inquest into the death of [name withheld]  who was originally from Doncaster, was opened and adjourned at Bournemouth Coroner's Court. Evidence was heard that the 57-year-old died from multiple blunt force injuries.

During the trial, evidence of Mr [name withheld]'s previous sexual offending was publicised but addressing the jury the judge, The Honourable Mr. Justice Griffith Williams, said: “All human life has value and [name withheld] is entitled to the same justice as victims whose reputations are exemplary."

Playlist Link

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MEXICO - Vigilante targets thieves, kidnappers, sex offenders and extortionists

Original Article

Imagine that, vigilantes committing murder and targeting others, except themselves who are committing crime as well, and then calling it "justice!"

03/25/2013

URAPAN - Vigilante justice surfaces in the streets of Mexico’s Michoacan state as the bodies of seven men, all shot in the head as if executed, were found dumped in plastic chairs placed along the side of a street.

Michoacan’s attorney general’s office said in an official statement Saturday that the victims had all been shot in the head and placed individually in the sitting position in chairs near a traffic circle in the city of Uruapan. A placard nailed to one of the bodies with an ice pick reads: “Warning! This will happen to thieves, kidnappers, sex offenders and extortionists.”
- But what about murderers, gang members and drug dealers?

It comes after seven people were killed in neighboring Guerrero state when armed men opened fire in a bar in Ciudad Altamirano on Friday evening, leaving four civilians and three off-duty federal agents among the dead, reports Aljazeera.

Mexico’s officials attribute the violence to drug-cartel activity. Perhaps the signs stabbed into the victims’ corpses lend a clue, as the murderer seems to have wanted to send a message to everyone but the drug traffickers.

Drug violence escalated after former president Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown against narco-traffickers.

An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico in the past seven years.

The Mexican government estimates that at least another 26,000 have “disappeared” in that same period.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, has vowed to quell the lawlessness and killing that have stained Mexico’s image as a tourist destination and rattled investors.

Thousands of soldiers were sent to patrol the streets, but the number of fatalities continued to rise.

Human rights groups accuse government forces of being behind hundreds of cases of missing people.

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ME - Man admits to police he killed sex offender by overdose

Original Article

03/21/2013

By Samantha Edwards

MOLUNKUS TOWNSHIP (NEWS CENTER) - Information about the events leading up to last week's murder suicide continues to unravel. An affidavit filed in Lincoln District Court states Bruce King, 59, also known as Bruce Heal admitted to killing Lawrence Lewis, 68, by forcing him to overdose on medication.

According to a newly released affidavit, days before the body of Lawrence Lewis was found in his Molunkus home he told his son he was worried. State Police Detective Darrin Crane said in a sworn statement, Lewis' son David "last spoke with his father on Thursday, March 7, 2013. Lawrence expressed concerns about a 'hit' placed on him after it had become known that he was a registered sex offender."

Lawrence Lewis was a registered sex offender in Maine, convicted in the 90's for sexually assaulting a child.

During the four hour stand-off with police on I-95, police said King told them he killed Lewis because "he had reported Lewis for molesting children and no one was doing anything."

The document goes on to state, King "killed Lewis by forcing him to take two bottles of nitroglycerin and one bottle of 'psych' meds."

Police also interviewed King's new wife, [name withheld], they said she told them King said on multiple occasions that he was going to kill Lewis because he was molesting kids.

Although the affidavit states King told police how he killed Lewis, state police have not confirmed the cause of death. It could be months until it is confirmed.

See Also:

• Google Search
• Mother of man killed after being listed on state online sex offender registry seeks changes (Audio below)

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WA - Man shot by Seattle police near Carkeek Park dies; was registered sex offender and a Schizophrenic

Original Article

This article says the man was a Schizophrenic. What ever happened to doing everything possible to spare a human life? Now it’s take a life and ask questions later!  They could have tranquilized the man without killing him!

02/27/2013

A man shot multiple times by police in northwest Seattle has died at Harborview Medical Center, according to police sources, who say the man was a registered sex offender convicted of attacking a woman two years ago near the scene of Tuesday night's shooting.

The man, identified by sources as [name withheld], 21, was charged with second-degree assault with intent to commit rape after attacking a woman jogging in Carkeek Park in October 2011. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman told The Seattle Times a warrant had been issued for his arrest on Jan. 28 after he failed to report to his community corrections officer and his treatment provider.

Officers responded Tuesday night to reports of a domestic disturbance and possible hostage situation near the park. A caller told dispatchers that a man was threatening to hold his father hostage with a knife.

Detective Mark Jamieson says officers were able to separate the suspect and his father, but the suspect continued to be difficult.

According to police, [name withheld] fled the scene and crouched behind a parked car.

"One of the pursuing officers slipped and fell near the suspect's feet and then suddenly the suspect raised up from his crouched position holding a large piece of metal in his hand," Jamieson said.

Officers fired, striking [name withheld] several times.

In the October 2011 attack, court documents say [name withheld] jumped from a park bench on a remote park trail and grabbed a woman from behind in a choke hold, throwing her down and pushing her head to the ground.

The woman was able to fight him off, according to police.

[name withheld] reportedly apologized and ran from the park, calling 911 to tell police he'd just attacked a woman.

Seattle police plan to brief the media on the shooting sometime Thursday.

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IA - Sex offenders are once again scapegoated for the murder of children, nobody arrested, no sex involved?

Sex Offenders = Scapegoat?

Original Article

02/25/2013

By MIKE WISER

DES MOINES - Sex offenders could be hunted for their crimes indefinitely under legislation introduced Monday by an Iowa lawmaker.

Sen. Jeff Danielson’s bill would remove the statute of limitations on sex offenses involving children, a provision that drew praise from some during a Statehouse hearing.

“Sometimes it takes decades before the trauma can be spoken of,” said Kim Hiscox, an organizer and spokeswoman for the National Child Safety Council. “A statute of limitations doesn’t make sense.”

The bill, which Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said “was a starting point,” makes several other changes to existing law. They include:

• Modifying the state’s sex offender registry tier structure so offenders are ranked on the list based on an assessment of their propensity to reoffend. Currently, offenders are placed on the list based on their conviction.
• Putting aside $2 million for a state revolving fund under control of the Department of Public Safety to pay for training and best practice protocols for law enforcement agencies involved in tracking missing children, including new alert systems and establishment of a statewide human trafficking task force.

Witch-Hunt Mentality

The legislation is in response to the abduction and killings of cousins Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, who were reported missing in July and whose bodies were discovered by hunters in December.
- And is was mentioned that they were probably killed by drug dealers, not ex-sex offenders, so instead of punishing murderers, they go after the scapegoat, sex offenders, and from a quick scan of the news, we do not see that sex was involved, so why punish ex-sex offenders for the crime of a murderer?

No arrests have been made in the case.

“It does not go far enough, but it’s the step in the right direction,” Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, said.

Sorenson has pushed for a reintroduction of the death penalty in the state since the girls’ bodies were discovered.

“I think capital justice is something we can have a discussion on,” Sorenson said, adding he could support Danielson’s bill. “I’m hoping we can make it a work in progress.”

Robin Arnold, a Cedar Falls woman who turned in 15,000 signatures from people who supported tougher sex offender laws to the committee, said she hoped the legislation would make it possible for quicker responses from law enforcement and the community at large when children are missing.
- Come on, this is insane!  Why do we continue to punish ex-sex offenders when a child goes missing or murdered instead of punishing the person who committed the act?  This is just wrong!

“I listened to them say every day for seven days ‘We have no reason to believe the children had been abducted,’” Arnold said. “So on the seventh day when it came across that ‘We now believe the children have been abducted,’ I cried, I prayed, I started the petitions.”

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The predatory justice of juvenile sex-offender laws

Original Article

01/20/2013

By Michael Zoorob

When lawmakers crafted laws to combat sexual violence, they probably never expected that children as young as 10 would end up on public sex offender registries. Law enforcement probably never expected that they would have to notify neighbors that a 13-year-old sex offender lived nearby. Yet that is the reality of America’s sex offender registration laws: Though the judicial system tends to distinguish between youth and adult offenders, 35 states subject minors convicted of sex crimes to the same registration, notification and restrictions as adults. Seven states require juveniles to stay on the registry for life. These crimes aren't always violent, either: A recent Human Rights Watch report notes that teens have found their way onto sex offender registries for benign acts like sexting, public urination and consensual sex with other teens.

In fact, 36 percent of all sex offenders who victimize children are themselves juveniles — and more than half of these juvenile offenders are 14 years old or younger, according to a recent study commissioned by the Department of Justice. It is understandable that laws should be created to curb sexual violence — but imposing the stigma of longtime and sometimes lifelong sex offender registration on juvenile offenders creates unnecessary harm both to them and their families. Juvenile offenders often experience emotional problems, difficulty securing employment, social ostracization and difficulties at school. There are, incredibly, cases of teens being barred from attending school due to their presence on sex offender registries because they sexted, the act of which the law considers child pornography. As adults, these offenders can expect restrictions on their residency, employment and mobility, and a significant minority will be fired, harassed, assaulted or even murdered because of their sex offender status.

Registration may also hinder crime rehabilitation of youth offenders. Depriving juvenile offenders of access to education, employment, religious services and healthy relationships — all common consequences of sex offender registration — could actually raise the probability that these children become lifelong delinquents. Unfortunately, registration requirements may deter families from reporting sex crimes committed by their child against a sibling for fear of the legal consequences, thus denying access to rehabilitative services.

Registration of juveniles has also been shown not to reduce sex crime. Studies by Elizabeth Letourneau of the University of South Carolina have found that registering juvenile offenders neither reduced overall rates of offenses nor reduced recidivism. This makes sense. It’s hard to argue, for example, that public safety was enhanced by the eviction of a 26-year-old married woman from her home in Georgia because a daycare center opened nearby. Her crime was that she had oral sex with a 15-year-old when she was 17.
- The same applies to adults.  Sex laws do nothing to reduce recidivism.

Moreover, juvenile offenders are distinct from their adult counterparts. Children who commit sex crimes, even violent ones, usually do so as a way of “acting out,” not because they eroticize aggression. Consequently, psychologists have found that rehabilitation is very effective for juvenile sex offenders, and very few juvenile offenders re-offend as adults. Most studies find the recidivism rate of juvenile sex offenders to be less than 5 percent.
- Recidivism rates are the same for adults as well.

Sex offenders deserve special opprobrium in our society. But we shouldn't let our visceral disgust with sex crimes bar us from making sensible public policy. Children are not miniature adults, and the law should not treat them that way.

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FL - Controversy: Child charged as adult

Original Article

01/16/2013

A 13-year-old Florida boy has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the beating death of his half-brother, age 3, and the sexual abuse of another half-brother, age 5.

If this case is heard, Christian Fernandez could be facing life in prison.

In this video clip, HLN’s Dr. Drew talks about the boy’s very troubled past. If convicted, should he get a second chance or is life in prison justifiable?

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